Head coach can't wait for new season

Peter Moores and his squad are off to Barbados to put the final touches to their pre-season training.

“Pre-season goes through phases,” he said. “Before Christmas it’s based around having a look at what happened last season, and the lads did some really good work.

“After Christmas, you get into your game plans and now we are into the last two or three weeks before we go to Barbados, when we are just topping up and getting ready to go.”

After overseeing a winter of hard work, Moores said Nottinghamshire were itching to get outside and start playing.

“We are a group of players and coaches who want to get outside and get ready to play the season,” he said. “We are looking forward to getting stuck in — I’m excited.”

“We are working hard with the lads because when we come to the start of those championship games, the quality of how we play will be the biggest thing.”

His appointment made Nottinghamshire the latest county to employ a head coach in tandem with a director of cricket.

It’s a structure that worked for the two-time England boss at Lancashire, where he won the County Championship in 2011.

The 54-year-old, who has been at the helm since October, gave his backing to a largely unchanged group of players, and said he hoped changes to the coaching staff would help them produce improved performances.

“Mick (Newell) is now overseeing all cricket,” he said. “It creates a freedom for me and the coaching team to do the work with the players and get them ready to play.

“There have been two or three other coaching changes, with Paul Franks taking on the role of assistant head coach, Ant Botha arriving and James Pipe coming in from Derbyshire as our new physio.

“Credit to all of them. The way they support the team and work together is something I’m really pleased with.

“The players are pretty much the same. It’s nice for those players to have an opportunity in what is a new start.

“They were disappointed and frustrated last season. There’s a chance to come back this year and start to try and put that right.

“Our game is moving quickly... and we have got to move with it. It’s very fast paced and physical.”